The Drunken Lizard Pub

Ability to Hire Mercenaries.

mordormaniac wrote:Ability to Hire Mercenaries.

I suspect that's probably going to be a little too complicated to be implemented.

I think the Summon Beast spell is as close as we're going to get to that...

IJBall wrote:

mordormaniac wrote:Ability to Hire Mercenaries.

I suspect that's probably going to be a little too complicated to be implemented.

I think the Summon Beast spell is as close as we're going to get to that...

I think it might be difficult to let a NPC follow you to another level. Otherwise maybe enemies in Book I and Book II would follow you as well.

actually you bring up a great idea for Book III. Let attackers follow you from map/level to the next map/level. Takes away the trick of popping over to a map sliding up to the top, comming back and sniping.

OK - finally updated the Wishlist. It was a combination of adding some new entries (at least one or more to pretty much every section of the list), and rewording/editing a few other entries.

I think I've now added pretty much every reasonable (i.e. every one that I think has a reasonable chance of being implemented by BW) request made in this thread (and in a few others) to the Book III Wishlist.

As always, if anyone thinks of any other reasonable wishes/requests for Book III, feel free to post them up here!

One of these days I'll also get up a new post-v1.05 Book II 'bugs' list as well, but I don't think it's gonna happen this week. (Maybe over Thanksgiving break!...)

Agree with Necromis. Enemies should be able to cross the mapsheet divide! If not, at least have some waiting on the other side if a player is simply running away from certain demise. Also enemies should be able to recoup and/or regenerate.

Other wishes (and I understand its an issue programming something absolutely brand new)...these should be possible within the existing engine...

1. Both in Book I & II, eventually one ends up too rich (and consequently too powerful). Maybe a money related difficulty level (sliding scale) that players can select? Buy high, sell low? Struggle to find enough gold even at high skill levels? Pretty in tune with what the world economy is going thru

2. Some blessed enemies who can only be killed with a particular type (or group) of weapon / spell? Say Enemy 'X' can only be killed with a Wraithbiter or Fiendish or Hellwrought weapon (or maybe a more generic group)? Similar to Enemy 'Y' being immune to some Elemental or Divine spells (already exists for Vaxia etc). Shops/hidden treasures/quests can provide the item with varying cost/difficulty. NPCs in the vicinity can drop hints (what kills the enemy or where can the killer weapon be found etc). Maybe they can even drop confusing hints/rumours and the player has to narrow down the options (sort of a human puzzle). They can even ask money for food / drink to talk. This would make the dumb NPCs gain much more relevance too.

3. I found it strange that a human combatant outruns a pack of wolves or harpies and even spirits! I understand its a game constraint - but maybe, some Ranger type enemies with whom you can't close in (unless one is highly skilled in stealth/is invisible)...or few enemies that move faster then the player (or are airborne) and can only be killed from a distance. Even better would be some enemies that can go invisible and displace themselves a few squares while doing so (and maybe a spell to make them visible again)?

All these can also be used to influences player preferences in skill acquisition. It can play a major role (a high value enemy/treasure), or a minor role (a minor enemy/dungeon/treasure that the player can skip) depending on how you want the gameplay to unfold.

Best would be if some of these can be turned on/off/randomised based on player preference. IMHO, this will make the game much more versatile, better balanced and of sustained value to the buyer.

Moreover, these should be possible without excessive programming.

(This is another Lore issue, but as far as I could see this one hasn't been specifically mentioned):

I'm finishing Book II with my low-INT fighter right now, and one thing that really bugs me is when I find a shiny new sword or breastplate that I can't use because it's unidentified, even though I'm trained in Swords and Heavy Armor.

What if certain skills gave a (large) bonus on Lore checks for identifying those specific items? Or maybe after a certain skill level, you get automatic successes on those items (say, 30 ranks of weapon skills for weapons, 20 ranks of Alchemy for alchemy ingredients, etc). In this case my fighter would be able to identify nearly any sword, which makes sense since he's trained with them most of his life, but he'd still be dumb as a doorknob when it came to scrolls or potions.

Alternately, what if you still weren't able to identify it but could get some use out of it? I could still equip my new Mithril Greatsword, but its max damage is reduced because I don't quite know what it is. Or in the case of a magic item, it functions as the mundane version until I get it identified.

Actually, I've been recommending a version of this for some time. I was hoping BW could do it for Book II, but didn't.

Tempest wrote:I'm finishing Book II with my low-INT fighter right now, and one thing that really bugs me is when I find a shiny new sword or breastplate that I can't use because it's unidentified, even though I'm trained in Swords and Heavy Armor.

Yeah, this is a pretty commonly-requested thing actually.

I still remember rolling a very low-INT fighter at one point who wasn't able to properly identify rocks. Makes you wonder how he survived so far in life, doesn't it?

xolotl wrote: I still remember rolling a very low-INT fighter at one point who wasn't able to properly identify rocks. Makes you wonder how he survived so far in life, doesn't it?

After the (original) Fallout games, there'll always be a place in my heart for characters so dumb you wonder how they're still alive. Fallout: the only game where you can play as a character too dumb to talk and who hits children in the crotch with a sledgehammer.

Tempest wrote:What if certain skills gave a (large) bonus on Lore checks for identifying those specific items? Or maybe after a certain skill level, you get automatic successes on those items (say, 30 ranks of weapon skills for weapons, 20 ranks of Alchemy for alchemy ingredients, etc). In this case my fighter would be able to identify nearly any sword, which makes sense since he's trained with them most of his life, but he'd still be dumb as a doorknob when it came to scrolls or potions.

I like this. A lot. I'll experiment with this for Book III- see if I can come up with anything that plays well.

xolotl wrote:

Tempest wrote:I'm finishing Book II with my low-INT fighter right now, and one thing that really bugs me is when I find a shiny new sword or breastplate that I can't use because it's unidentified, even though I'm trained in Swords and Heavy Armor.

Yeah, this is a pretty commonly-requested thing actually.

I still remember rolling a very low-INT fighter at one point who wasn't able to properly identify rocks. Makes you wonder how he survived so far in life, doesn't it?

Yeah, my bad, folks. This particular request has come up on a number of occasions, and I just simply 'spaced', and never thought to add it to the Wishlist.

(xolotl's (and others') second point is already on the Wishlist - I too think INT needs to be reworked so an INT=15 character can at least ID all kinds of food, and even an INT=10 character should be able to ID rocks, etc.! But, like I said - that entry is already in the Wishlist.)

Anyway, even though BW has personally said he already intends to look in to the issue of (INT and/or Lore)/Weapons-Armor Skill "linking", I will still add an entry for it to the next edition of the Wishlist...

P.S. By the same token, I also really like the suggestion to include Meditation in the (INT or WIS)/2 = (# of "learnable" spells) formula.

Wishlist updated (11/20/11): To include the Weapons Skill-Lore/INT-bonus linking feature requested above, as well as a making a few minor revisions to a couple of other entries (and to the wishlist's 'preamble'/intro).

Necromis wrote:actually you bring up a great idea for Book III. Let attackers follow you from map/level to the next map/level. Takes away the trick of popping over to a map sliding up to the top, comming back and sniping.

I've given this idea some thought, and put me down in the camp that would not like to see this implemented, except in a limited number of circumstances.

Yeah, it's unquestionably an 'exploit' that you can cross on to a new map, and pursuing enemies can't follow you there.

But, the thing is, it's an 'exploit' that's been there since the very beginning of the Book I game!! I feel like changing that, at this point, would radically alter the gameplay that we've come to expect from the Eschalon series.

Now, that said, what would be cool is there was a very limited number of "special" baddies that could follow you across 'map-boarders' in to new areas. In fact, it might be really cool if there was some sort of flying 'baddie' (a dragon, perhaps?! ) that randomly flew around across/among multiple maps, and could chase you across map boarders when attacked/attacking.

Now, I don't know how difficult that would be for BW to implement on a 'case-by-case' basis. But, I admit, it would be cool to see (on a very limited basis...).

you could also tweak it to maybe not let you go to another map while in combat with that special baddie instead of having it follow you. I am thinking this idea, either way it would work best, will be implemented in any case.

Personally i think all those ideas would kind of ruin my gameplay as there are some baddies i have NOT been able to defeat unless i did run away and rest.